James Wilson’s address to Church of England Synod in November 2023 highlights St James and Emmanuel’s decision to become “loudly and proudly inclusive” as it creates an environment where everyone feels welcome, regardless of who they are and who they love.
James Wilson, Manchester 366, and thank you for calling me chair. Just a warning that my speech will touch on suicide and mental health breakdown.
Part A of the motion we passed in February talked about lamenting and repenting of the harm that LGBTQI+ people have experienced and continue to experience in the life of the Church. And to this end, PLF and replacing issues in human sexuality are a start, although I share the disappointment of others on the slow progress being made on these. But I believe we also need to look at what more we can do to turn these words about repentance into actions.
I started attending the church where I currently worship, St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury, as it was coming to terms with the suicide of a member of the congregation, Lizzie Lowe. She was 14. In the inquest into her death a few months later, it came to light that before she died she was coming to terms with the fact that she was gay, and that she didn’t believe that was compatible with her Christian faith. The response of the church’s leadership to this tragedy was to become loudly and proudly inclusive of LGBTQI+ people, and to endeavour to create an environment where everyone felt welcome, regardless of who they are and who they love. And while a number of people with conservative views left us at the outset, more have joined us, both LGBTQI+ people who have struggled to find a church of the tradition they’re used to locally who will accept them for who they are, and just straight people who just want to be able to invite gay friends to church without them being told God loves you… but…
Some have just studied the context of the three New Testament scriptures just referred to, to sexual practices in the Roman Empire traditionally used against homosexuality, and concluded that they weren’t talking about committed, monogamous, same-sex relationships.
It’s been suggested in this chamber that churches who are affirming are shrinking and dying. That couldn’t be further from our experience at St James and Emmanuel. Polling and research, and I’m sure for many of us conversations we’ve had, tell us that perceptions of homophobia in the church are off-putting to many people, especially young people who might otherwise be receptive to the gospel. And it’s not that they expect the church to, to steal a phrase, ‘compromise with culture’, it’s that they see a disconnect between the unconditional love of Christ that we preach and the othering of people because of their sexuality or gender identity.
This has just been cited, in Matthew 7 Jesus said, “A good tree cannot produce bad fruits, nor can a bad tree produce good fruits”. I’ve heard many stories of pain and hurt at the hands of the Church from LGBTQI+ Christians who have joined our congregation over the last few years. For one friend, years of rejections at the hands of a series of churches and suppressing his sexuality, including attending support groups to lead the celibate life he was told God wanted him to lead, led to a mental health breakdown. Synod, this is not good fruit.
The word repentance implies turning around, and while I don’t want to ask for more work streams and certainly what don’t want to see any further delay, in implementing what we agreed in February, it would sometimes be helpful if we were explicit about what exactly we were repenting of, and how the Church is going to do better in future and put into practice the radical inclusion we talked about in February. Thank you.